June’s Employment Roundup: Big announcements by FinTrU and Amazon

Dairy nutrition company Volac announced a €3.3 million investment in a new purpose-built finishing and packing facility near Kells, Co Meath.

Up to 16 new, manufacturing jobs will be created in the facility which will begin producing milk replacers in Ireland.

The investment is supported by the Irish government through Enterprise Ireland.

Orla Battersby, Manager, Food Division, Enterprise Ireland said Volac joins the Enterprise Ireland food FDI community that ’employs 10,000 people in Ireland and is responsible for 35% of all Irish food exports’.

“This is great news for Mullagh, Kells and we look forward to continuing to work with Volac as it grows and expands its operations while creating jobs here in Ireland,” she added.

FinTrU to create over 600 new jobs between Belfast and Derry

Financial services firm FinTrU has announced that 605 new jobs are to be created over the next five years. The expansion by FinTrU will see it establish a new operation in Derry with 305 new jobs and create a further 300 new roles in Belfast.

Invest NI has offered £3.2million of support for the new jobs and the Department for the Economy has offered £2.4million of support through its Assured Skills Programme.

Alastair Hamilton, CEO of Invest NI said the new jobs to be recruited over the next five years will ‘generate over £15million in additional annual salaries for the local economy’.

FinTrU provides regulatory resourcing services to Investment Banks and other financial institutions. It established its Belfast centre of excellence in 2014, with initial plans to recruit 80 staff and has since grown to now employing over 240 staff.

C0-Cork born Darragh McCarthy founded FinTrU and is the CEO. A former student of UCD, Mr McCarthy is a finalist in this year’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

He said that his company’s partnership over the last few years with Invest NI has been ‘invaluable to our growth’.

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley also welcomed the announcement by FinTrU.

Forcepoint to create 100 new jobs in Cork

US Cybersecurity company Forcepoint is to hire 100 new staff in first year of operations as a new Center of Excellence in Cork opened on June 21. The company says recruiting has already begun.

The company says the investment, supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland, will focus on new product development in the cloud and endpoint cybersecurity technology space.

The office is located in Cork City Centre, One Albert Quay, where Forcepoint is actively hiring and growing rapidly. The investment runs across three years with the majority of the new roles in cloud and endpoint software engineering created during the first year of operations. Further roles are planned over the remainder of the investment period.

Trūata sets up headquarters in Dublin and plans to hire 75 people

Data analytics company Trūata said it plans to hire up to 75 personnel – mainly data analysts, data scientists and engineers – for its Dublin headquarters in 2018.

Set up as a trust, Trūata handles data anonymisation and analytics to ‘help organisations meet the standards of personal data protection envisioned by the GDPR’.

The recruitment drive comes three months after the start-up was launched as a trust by its founding beneficiaries, Mastercard and IBM.

Minister for Business, Enterprise & Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD said Trūata’s arrival is a ‘great vote of confidence in what we have to offer, and we welcome the creation of 75 highly-skilled new jobs’.

Over 100 jobs for NI over 4 years

Eirtech Aviation Services, headquartered in Shannon Airport, has established a new Composites Repair Centre, Eirtech Aviation Composites Limited in Belfast.

It said it plans to recruit 124 new jobs over the next four years.

US IT company, HHAeXchange hiring ‘technical talent’ for its ‘tech hub’ in Belfast

New York based HHAeXchange has opened a software development centre in Belfast and said it is ‘actively hiring technical talent’ to support its growth.

Greg Strobel, CEO of HHAeXchange said the company has won many new contracts recently, and that the Belfast team ‘will focus on new enterprise technology developments’.

“A key factor in choosing to open an office in Northern Ireland was the level of software knowledge and skilled talent available here, in addition to the location’s ease of travel from New York City”, said Mr Strobel.

Invest NI has offered £400,000 of support towards the new jobs, which they say will ‘attract high salaries and contribute over £2m in wages annually to the Northern Ireland economy’.

Amazon announces a thousand jobs for Ireland

Amazon (Pic: Inside Ireland.ie)

Amazon announced on 18 June that it is to create 1,000 jobs in Ireland over the next two years and will be hiring engineers, solutions architects, security and big-data specialists, development operations engineers and technical management positions.

The new jobs will be based in Blanchardstown, Tallaght, the city centre and north County Dublin, with the majority of the roles at Amazon Web Services in Dublin, a subsidiary.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said at the announcement by Amazon:

“Your announcement today of 1,000 new highly skilled full time jobs are exactly the kind of jobs we are looking for. Since you opened your first office in Ireland in September 2004, you have broadened and deepened your commitment and investment in Ireland.”

Amazon currently employs more than 2,500 people around Ireland.

AllinAll Ingredients plans to hire 20 people over next four years

An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, TD officially opened AllinAll Ingredient’s new state of the art manufacturing and Research and Development facility in Rosemount, Dublin on June 18. The company, which has been in the food industry for over 20 years, develops and manufactures ingredients, sauces and blends for the processed food market.

AllinAll Ingredients says the new facility will support the company’s growth ambitions as it looks to further grow its sales in Eastern Europe and the Middle East as well as seek new export markets by linking up with new Distributors.

“The growth trajectory which AllinAll Ingredients has been on has been substantial, doubling its employee numbers over the last four years to forty, and the expanded facilities will provide for an expanded workforce as the company plans to hire a further twenty people over the next four years.”

Ten new jobs to be created over two years as new Irish-developed Nursing Home Care Management System launched

A new, Irish-developed, nursing home care management IT platform has been launch by a company based in Co. Roscommon. The team behind the system, InselCare, expect ‘ten new, highly skilled jobs in the areas of IT support, sales/marketing, system training and implementation to be created over the next two years’.

The platform was launched during Nursing Homes Week, June 18th – 24th 2018.

The new platform is currently being piloted in nursing homes in Counties Roscommon and Wexford.

Opening of the new McArdle-Skeath Transport Depot creates ‘100 new jobs’
The Taoiseach was in Hollystown, Dublin on 15 June at the opening of this new McArdle-Skeath transport depot as part of a €20 million investment.

“It will also see the creation of up to 100 new jobs,” he said.

Novosco recruiting almost over additional staff in a £20million expansion project

IT company Novosco has been offered over £1.2m by Invest Northern Ireland towards the creation of 114 roles to be based at Navosco’s Belfast headquarters. Danske Bank is also providing finance for the capital investment required.

The company says the new jobs will include IT infrastructure engineers, service delivery roles, project managers, cloud experts and cyber security specialists.

Making the announcement on a visit to Carey Cleaning Machines Ltd in Co Antrim, Moira Loughran, Invest NI’s Eastern and North Eastern regional manager confirmed the agency are supporting six Northern Ireland manufacturing firms to ‘create 41 new jobs in an effort to help these companies drive growth in turnover and increase their export sales’.

Carey Cleaning Machines Ltd is investing over £1.1million to help in its strategic growth and increase sales in ROI. Invest NI has offered the company support of £49,000 to create seven jobs and enhance its marketing capabilities.

“The companies are making investments of £3.7million and creating valuable employment that once in place, will generate almost £1.2million in additional annual salaries for the Northern Ireland economy.”

-Invest NI

Invest NI has offered £261,000 of support towards the 41 new jobs, of which 12 are in place.

Job Cuts, Co Kerry

SIPTU members at the Liebherr Container Cranes Ltd. plant in Killarney, county Kerry, have expressed ‘shock and disappointment’ at reports ‘that 27 workers are to lose their jobs in June, up to 60 in July and possibly a further 128 in August’.

“Our members are shocked and disappointed at the confirmation by the management of Liebherr of the extent of potential job losses at the plant over the coming weeks and months… “This is a severe blow to the loyal Liebherr workforce, their families and the community in Killarney and surrounding areas. The company has provided steady employment for generations of workers in Kerry”.

-SIPTU Organiser, Joe Kelly

The company, which was established in Killarney in 1958, employs over 800 people including more than 300 SIPTU members. SIPTU representatives said they will meet with management on 26th June to discuss measures to ‘reduce the number of potential job losses and to minimise the impact on those affected’.

eBECS Announces 100 jobs in Ireland

Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys TD and eBECS, a Technology Company announced on 12 June an investment in the creation of 100 new tech jobs in Ireland, which is supported through IDA Ireland.

eBECS first established operations in Ireland in 2016 and specialises in delivering Microsoft business applications.

The company said the jobs are spread across Microsoft Certified Professionals and both their graduate and return to work programme and that employees can choose to work from home anywhere within Ireland.

Sam Dharmasiri, eBECS Sales Director said:

“Ireland is a significant market for eBECS, so I am delighted that eBECS have decided to further expand operations in Ireland, with the creation of an additional 100 jobs. I really appreciate the support of the IDA, and I look forward to eBECS’s continued success in both the UK and in Ireland”.

STATS’ Limerick Office to ’employ 100 Full and Part-Time Employees by end of 2018′

STATS officially opened its new offices at Riverstone House, Henry Street, in Limerick city centre on Monday 11th of June. Originally announced last October, STATS aims to employ more than 150 full and part-time staff in Limerick by 2020, making it the largest sports technology business in Ireland.

STATS said recruitment has already begun and aims to place up to 100 full and part-time staff for its Limerick operation by the end of this year.

Co Derry
Co Derry based pharmaceutical manufacturing business, iMed NI Ltd, is recruiting 14 new jobs supported by Invest NI, almost half of which are already in place.

The roles include a range of managerial, specialist and manufacturing positions. The company has built a new manufacturing facility in Draperstown to help drive iMed Group International’s expansion in Great Britain and European markets.

The company said iMed is one of Ireland’s leading pharmaceutical wholesale importers, with ‘regulatory approved in-house manufacturing for repackaging and relabelling of prescription and over the counter pharmaceutical products’.

Grainne McVeigh, Invest NI’s Director of Life Sciences & Scaling, said once in place, the 14 new jobs will contribute £350,000 annually in additional salaries to the local economy.

Laurence O’Kane and Paul Murphy, Co-owners, iMed said Invest NI’s support with its recruitment efforts is enabling the business to ‘quickly fill critical roles that will boost the business’ performance’.

CSO: Unemployment fell in May
New figures from the Central Statistics Office shows that unemployment fell in May.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for May 2018 was 5.8%, down 0.1% from the rate of 5.9% in April 2018 and down from 6.6% in May 2017. The seasonally adjusted number of persons unemployed was 139,000 in May 2018, down from 140,800 when compared to the April 2018 figure and a decrease of 15,600 when compared to May 2017.

(Please note II.ie is not responsible for the content of external websites)

Almost 100 could be cut by Co Antrim factory
The Co Antrim manufacturing firm Wrightbus told workers on 05 June to expect further job losses of up to 95 posts.

A similar amount of jobs also went following an announcement in February.

According to reports, the company said the announcement was a result of ‘continued low levels of demand for new buses in the UK market’.

Wrightbus is one of a number of companies within the parent group Wrights Group. The former has around a six hundred strong workforce.

Responding on behalf of Unite the union,Regional Officer George Brash said:

“ This is dreadful news for Wright group workers and the beleaguered Ballymena economy coming on the heels of the final shutdown of both JTI-Gallaher and Michelin factories in the town. Indeed it was only February 12th that an earlier ninety-five job-losses were announced due to a reported downturn in orders”.

Mr Brash added that although Unite have yet to hear formally from management to confirm numbers, it understands that the jobs are set to go in En-drive, the Wrightbus group and in Customcare”.

Law firm creates 13 new jobs
UK law firm Shoosmiths LLP is expanding its presence in Belfast and creating 13 new jobs.

Invest NI has offered the company support of £52,000 towards the new roles with seven of these at graduate level.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to deliver a superior service to clients we are delighted to announce our Inceptions team will be based in Belfast. Our merger with McManus Kearney in 2016, brought Shoosmiths to the region for the first time and since then we have been very impressed with the expertise and client focus delivered by our Belfast team”.

Abtran creates 350 new jobs
Abtran, an Irish Outsourcing provider is creating 350 new jobs in Sligo, in a development supported by the Government through Enterprise Ireland.

Established in 1997, Abtran employs over 2,000 people in Cork, Dublin, Kildare and Southern India. The company said it will base its new regional operations centre in a high-tech facility at Finisklin Business Park in Sligo.

“… I’m delighted to announce this significant investment by Abtran in a new regional hub, which will create 350 jobs in Sligo. The company’s continuous innovation, market leadership and investment in high-quality resources have made this indigenous Irish business deeply competitive… Ireland will continue to be an acknowledged leader in this sector driven by initiatives like this by Abtran.”

Technology firm creating 50 jobs for Belfast
A New York-based technology firm which provides an online and mobile ordering and payment platform for independent pizzerias in the US, is creating 50 jobs in Belfast.

Invest NI has offered £400,000 towards the creation of the jobs, which will be in software engineering and the roles will attract an average salary of more than £40,000. It is understood that 11 of the new roles are already in place.

Sammon Group announces its liquidation
The Sammon Group, the construction contractor based in Co Kildare, has gone into liquidation.

Since its establishment in 1986 the company had grown substantially and has developed a network of repeat clients across all sectors.

The company said that the collapse of UK firm Carillion and the sudden suspension of the major Schools Bundle 5 PPP Project placed Sammon into ‘a perfect storm’.

Sammon CEO Miceál Sammon said he ‘deeply regrets’ the financial and commercial impact that this development has had on its ‘loyal suppliers and sub-contractors’.

“Our company has made a strong contribution to infrastructure development, local employment, economic growth and the construction sector in Ireland.”However, we are devastated by the impact that this development has on everyone associated with our company – both personally and professionally. We are grateful for their patience and support and we are hopeful of retaining that support, as we seek to re-establish the manufacturing side of our business and continue local employment in the area.”

Inside Ireland

Inside Ireland is a not-for-profit news outlet covering local stories
affecting communities in Ireland. Its contributors come from all over Ireland and
are hobbyist and professional journalists, chronicling stories from all
four corners of the island.